


The Two Quints

by Red_Lenses



Series: When The Storm Breaks [9]
Category: Rockman | Mega Man Classic
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Mentions of Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-01
Updated: 2018-11-01
Packaged: 2019-08-14 05:15:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,150
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16486568
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Red_Lenses/pseuds/Red_Lenses
Summary: Two robots who never expected to meet have a chance encounter during a rainstorm.





	The Two Quints

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the friend who made me love Quint - and who got me into this entire fandom, really.

Once upon a time everything was peaceful. At least, he thought it had been. But try as he might, Quint couldn’t remember exactly how that peace had been shattered.

The steady patter of raindrops had been the only sound audible for hours as the sun slowly sank beneath the horizon. Now there was nothing but darkness surrounding him. Occasionally he blinked and switched to his night vision mode just to check for movement, but it consumed too much power to keep it active for long. Every minute he could squeeze out of his internal battery was precious. After all, he never knew the next time he would have access to an E-tank or a recharging point.

A trickle of cold water dripped onto his arm. He blinked to switch his vision and looked up, eyes searching for the culprit. It didn’t take him long to conclude that the rain had simply been collecting upon some of the leaves of the tree sheltering him. Clearly their burden had finally grown too great. He shook the water off and wrapped his arms around his knees again before falling still.

Quint thought about home. He remembered his sister, always cheerful and encouraging regardless of the difficulties that came their way. How he missed her. It was beyond an ache; any time he thought about her he felt as though his chest was about to burst with emotion. There was simply too much sadness and love to contain.

Now the water was not only falling from the sky. He pushed his visor up briefly to dry his eyes but only succeeded in smearing his tears across his dirty cheeks. He frowned at his fingers, rubbing them together to feel the mud on them, and stuck out his hands to catch some of the rainwater. Once enough had gathered he doused his face with it. It helped only a little but it was better than nothing.

His visor clicked back into place over his eyes and he settled back against the tree. There was little more to do but wait for the rain to stop. He released a sigh as his mind slipped back into recollections, this time not bothering to check for movement.

It was only by chance that the other robot had noticed him. If not for the briefest glimpse of glowing optics in the dark night he might have passed by without knowing he was not alone. He paused there for a moment, pushing his own shades out of the way in order to see better - not that it helped when he was almost completely blind at night.

But there they were again. Two tiny lights in a sea of darkness. His mind rapidly calculated how far away they were even as he watched the way they moved. That was definitely a robot, he confirmed to himself even as they vanished from sight. There was another robot out in the rain.

Perhaps it was a risk to confront another robot in a situation like this, but it was one he had to take. The other robot didn’t seem to be moving far; they must have some form of shelter. Perhaps they would be willing to share it.

The rain had stirred up the earth into mud that sucked at his boots as he left the path. He didn’t see the eyes again, but he trusted his memory and his ability to calculate distances well enough that he didn’t need their light. Although it would be nice to be able to see, he thought with annoyance as he stumbled over a rock. If only Wily had given him a night vision mode when he forcibly modified him. It would have been far more useful than the experimental weapon copy chip that had broken the first time he tried to use it.

When he deemed himself close enough to be heard he spoke up. “ _Guten Abend!_ ”

The figure under the tree jolted upright in fear and scrambled back against the tree, caught completely off-guard. His night vision showed him the image of a figure in sodden clothes covered by a mismatched jumble of armour, which did nothing to tell him who had found him. “Wh… wha…? Wh-who’s there?”

That simplified things. The other robot had all but used up his knowledge of the local language with his greeting. It was a relief to switch to a more familiar language. “My name’s Quint. Do you mind if-“

“No you’re not,” Quint blurted in a panic.

There was a short pause. “Why do you say that?”

“B-because…” He hadn’t meant to blurt out the denial. Now he had little choice but to tell the truth. “Because I’m Quint.”

He expected the newcomer to react in anger. Perhaps he would deny it and they would enter a pointless cycle of arguments until Quint found the courage to flee. Perhaps there would be a fight; one that he would surely lose, stripped as he was of the abilities that had once made him famous.

Instead the newcomer took half a step back and sucked in a sharp breath. “… Oh.”

Quint didn’t dare switch off his night vision. He was staring down the figure in the mismatched armour, braced for an attack that didn’t seem to be coming. The stranger appeared to be steeling himself for something before he finally spoke up again. “You’re right. I’m not. Can I join you? I promise I’ll tell you who I really am.”

For a moment Quint weighed up the situation. He didn’t want to be chased from the spot that had kept him dry since the rain started, but if he refused this robot could chase him away anyway. The easiest thing to do would be to agree and stay on his guard. In any case, this robot was completely soaked. If he was in that position he would want to be shown mercy.

He nodded. When the stranger continued to wait, Quint spoke up instead. “Yeah. You can sit…”

Grateful for the invitation, the newcomer walked forward until he was under the tree’s shelter too. Quint watched him intently as he tried to step around the place where the voice had come from, one hand stretched out in front of him to search for where the shelter ended. Instead he found the tree’s trunk and trailed his fingers lightly across it as he settled to the ground. “Thank you.”

“Are you… are you blind?”

The newcomer grimaced. “Only partly. Mostly when it’s dark. I saw your eyes from the path.”

“But you can’t see anything now?”

“Not a thing. Didn’t you hear me almost trip over that rock on my way over?”

Quint opened his mouth to say that he had been too distracted, but he closed it again without saying a word. This stranger didn’t need to know. Even if he was being quite open so far with his own secrets, including ones that could be used against him in a fight.

That thought had no sooner crossed Quint’s mind when the stranger lifted his arms. Instantly Quint tensed up, but he relaxed when he realized his visitor was merely removing his helmet. The short hair beneath was strangely familiar, almost reminiscent of his own. But surely plenty of robots had short hair-

“Quint, my name is Blues. Do you remember me?”

Quint’s breath caught in his throat and he emitted a choked noise. For a moment there was silence between the two as Quint’s eyes raked over every part of the robot sitting beside him. Blues’ hair should be longer, but if it was cut short it would have been just like his. His face - or as much of it as Quint could see behind the shades - had the same roundness. Even the structure of his body beneath his soaked clothing seemed to match the faded image that was safely stored away in his memory.

Quint’s hand rose slowly to his visor and he pushed it up, allowing it to slide into his helmet out of the way. Beneath it his eyes were as vibrantly blue as the newcomer knew they would be. In return he removed his own shades and Quint found a pair of eyes almost identical to his own staring back at him.

It was _him_.

“You remember?” A faint smile crossed Blues’ face as he replaced his shades. “I wasn’t sure you would. It must have been a long time…”

“But… how do you…?” Quint’s mouth gaped open as he struggled to find the words. He closed it and swallowed before trying again. “How do you know… who I am?”

“Do you mean how I know the name Quint? It’s not hard to find. You’re in Wily’s database, for one. But I first heard about you from my brother.” He tilted his head, seemingly scrutinizing Quint. At least, that was what he would appear to be doing if Quint hadn’t been aware that he could not even see him. “And if you’re asking if I know who you really are, my brother told me that too. Or should I say your past self told me, _Rock_.”

There was a swooping sensation somewhere in the area of Quint’s chest. “D-don’t use that name. Please. He’s not… I’m not…” That wasn’t who he was any more. He hadn’t been Rock in years.

Blues dipped his head in a brief nod. “I’m sorry. You don’t use that name any more?”

“Not… not since Wily.”

Silence fell between them as they sat there, simply being aware of each other’s presence. Quint switched off his night vision but it was on again a moment later; he couldn’t stand to stop looking at Blues, as though he would disappear if he looked away. It had been so long. He had not seen his brother since many years before he was stolen. And the last time he had… He didn’t want to think about that.

When he finally opened his mouth to speak Blues unintentionally cut him off. “How long has it been? Since you last saw me?”

“… Twenty-nine years.”

“Twenty-nine…” A quiet sigh. “I died, didn’t I?”

“You know…?”

“Of course I do. My core was never going to last as long as yours.” Blues pressed a hand to his chest in the darkness. Quint’s eyes followed it before flickering up to his brother’s face. And suddenly the words were pouring out of him.

“We didn’t know at first. You used to come and visit, but not often. Maybe once or twice a week, sometimes less. You never wanted to be around Dad but you came to see Roll. And sometimes you’d talk to me too, and then you started opening up to me… We were never really as close as you and Roll, but that was okay. I was just happy you stopped being mad at me for replacing you. And then… and then you stopped coming, and I think we knew what happened but we didn’t want to say it… But then he came.”

Blues was silent, waiting for Quint to continue. He drew a trembling breath as he reluctantly accessed his memories of the day. “Bass. He arrived at the door… And I thought he wanted to fight even though we hadn’t fought in years, but then I saw he was carrying you. W-we took you into the lab… we tried to fix you… we tried really hard… but…”

“But I was gone,” Blues murmured. “My IC chip would have been destroyed during my core’s final power surges.”

“Y-yeah…”

Blues could see his brother’s tears practically glowing in the light from his optics. Quint raised a hand to wipe them away and stared at them, sniffling quietly. “Roll cried for weeks… every time she thought of you… and so did I. Dad did too, but he tried to hide it from us. But we knew…” No matter how hard Doctor Light tried to hide it, the twins had seen their father through the lab’s window as he sat slumped over the table, his head in his arms and his shoulders shaking with emotion. That memory was almost as painful to recall as the moment they had first realized Blues was beyond repair.

The prototype shifted closer. For one wild moment Quint thought a hug was coming, only to be let down when Blues made no move to touch him. It had been a long time since he had been given a hug. He almost couldn’t remember what it was like. “But what are you doing here?” he asked eventually.

“Do you mean out in the rain at night, or in Germany?” A small smile tugged at the corner of Blues’ mouth. “Can’t you tell from the outfit and the fake name? I’m in disguise. Actually, I faked my own death to get away from Wily.”

“You _what-?_ ”

“But that’s not important,” Blues cut him off. “What are you doing here? How long have you been on the run? Don’t you have anywhere to go?”

Quint gazed at him for a moment before lifting a hand to his visor. It slid back into place over his eyes and he hugged his knees tightly. “I ran away after I couldn’t beat my past self. I stay on the move… I sneak onto ships and trains and let them take me wherever… The last ship took me to Russia two months ago. I’m going to get to France and sneak onto another ship. It doesn’t matter where I end up next.”

“That’s no way for a robot to live,” Blues said quietly.

“Isn’t it how you lived when you first ran away? Back when you were the only Robot Master, before dad built me?”

Blues hesitated. “… Yes. But that doesn’t mean it’s a good way to live.” For a moment he looked down toward his hands, which were resting in his lap. He couldn’t see them at all in the darkness. “… Quint, why don’t you stay with me?”

“I… what?” Quint stared at him in shock. Surely he had to be joking.

But Blues was completely serious. “Listen, there’s a place I’ve been staying a few days’ walk from here. I was on my way back to it. You can come with me if you like. It’s not much, but it’ll keep you dry from the rain and it’s not too hard to get a decent stash of fuel. There’s a place nearby that lets me do odd jobs for E-tanks.”

“Why are you so far away from it if you have to walk back?”

Blues opened his mouth to respond but nothing came out. When he closed it again he turned his face away and gazed into the distance without speaking. For a moment Quint saw a struggle behind those familiar eyes, as though he was fighting back tears, before he spoke up again. “Someone back home needed me. I had to be there for him.”

“Is everyone okay?”

“… No. But I did everything I could to help. That’s all I can really do.” Blues turned toward his lost brother again, his expression concerned even though his eyes were focused on a spot to the left of Quint’s head. “Will you come back with me? I won’t force you to stay, but I think you need a home. Even if my place isn’t much of one I want to share it with you.”

Quint wanted to refuse. But when he opened his mouth to do so, something different came out instead. “For how long?”

“As long as you want. We both know what it’s like to be homeless. I’m not going to kick you out. Even if I have to relocate, my new home will be open to you too.”

He couldn’t do it. He shouldn’t. Blues had always liked having his own space, Quint knew, and sharing his home would be invading that space. But at the same time the gesture was touching. It had been a long time since anyone had shown him this level of kindness. “Can I think about it?”

“Of course. Do you have something you could write the coordinates on?”

Quint had a few scraps of paper and the stub of a pencil tucked into one of his gauntlets in case his memory started to fail due to age. He dug them out and dutifully copied out the coordinates Blues recited for him, scribbling his brother’s name at the top of the paper in case he forgot what it was for. “I’ll come and see you even if I don’t stay,” he promised as he slid the items back into their spot.

“I’ll hold you to that promise.”

The rain continued to pour as the two slipped into silence. Quint could feel his energy running low and was soon forced to switch off his night vision. Without it the green-painted night became a blur of black once again, disturbed only by the two glowing optics of the robot beside him. When Blues eventually replaced his sunglasses and helmet even that much vanished from view. It was almost like being alone once again.

No. It was nothing like being alone. For the first time since he was stolen, Quint felt almost at peace.

As the night wore on he settled back against his tree. His eyes gradually began to close; although at first he forced them back open, eventually the weariness overcame him and he found himself slipping into hibernation mode. Although Blues could not see him he could hear the change in the soft electronic hum by his side. The fact that Quint felt safe enough to sleep beside him brought a feeling of contentment to Blues as he sat there, waiting for the rain to stop.

When Quint woke to a damp dawn he found himself alone under the tree. His eyes immediately travelled to the spot where Blues had sat, but there was no sign he had ever existed. At first he thought the entire conversation had been his imagination. Maybe he had been alone for too long.

He stared blearily at the grass for a moment before a realization struck him, causing him to fumble with his gauntlet. The catch came loose and he tore it off, sending loose scraps of paper fluttering all over the grass. Quickly he collected them, glancing at each one as he put them away, until he found the one which sent a wave of warmth through his entire body. There were the coordinates in his clumsy writing, highlighted by the name ‘Blues’. It had been real after all.

Quint read over the coordinates until he was sure he had them memorized. When he could recite them without looking he finally tucked the paper safely into his gauntlet and slipped his hand back inside, fastening it carefully at the wrist and elbow. Then he pushed himself upright, stretching his stiff joints, and began to walk.


End file.
